http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/outdoors/article/0,1406,KNS_326_1748110,00.html
He rigs sight for hunter - blind friend
By BOB HODGE, [email protected]
February 16, 2003
Carl Sherer came by the nickname "McGyver" honestly.
An investigator for the TVA police, Sherer was on a stakeout in Alabama when the batteries for his surveillance camera kept dying. Knowing his investigation would be useless without videotaped evidence, he took some wires and - like the McGyver on TV - rigged up the camera to his car battery.
"Any time your using surveillance equipment the biggest problem is power," Sherer said. "When you have trouble with the equipment, 90 percent of the time its because the batteries go dead."
Because of his ingenuity he kept the cameras rolling, the bad guys were caught, and he had a nickname . . . make that two nicknames.
"Sometimes we call him the High Tech Redneck," Sidney Whitehurst said. "He can go through stuff other people throw away and make something from it."
Whitehurst is the assistant director of the TVA Police and Sherer's longtime friend. When the two decided to take Blake Bivens deer hunting, - Bivens has been blind since he was 14 - it fell to Sherer to figure out how to make it possible.
While he couldn't make a blind man see - with a couple of cameras, some PVC pipe, a rifle with a scope and, of course, a little duct tape - he was able to make a blind man hunt.
"I guess I put about 20 or 25 hours of prep work and thought into it," said Sherer, who retires from TVA March 1. "At first I thought about mounting a camera on the rifle, then I thought about coming up with some sort of virtual reality device, but then I thought about using a camera and the rifle scope."
Sherer has a knack for electronics that has helped him with his job at TVA and with his hobby as a ham radio operator. His time working in communications with the National Guard hasn't hurt either.
Still, none of that really prepared him for how to get Bivens, who works at TVA in the criminal investigation division, into a deer stand with a reasonable chance of being successful.
"But after I got the idea of mounting a camera on a scope it came together pretty quickly," Sherer said.
Using a short piece of PVC he mounted a small surveillance camera in the scope on a Browning .25-06 and wired it to the video camera. He had to serve as his own machinist to fit the parts together and then had to sweat the technical aspects of getting a perfect match between the scope and the miniature camera.
He used camouflaged duct tape to put some padding over the scope/camera.
When he was done, one person could hold the rifle and another person could look into the viewfinder of the video camera and see everything the scope was seeing. Because the camera and scope move as one unit, the crosshairs of the scope appear to be superimposed on the viewfinder.
"When I got it all together I took it out on the porch behind my house and was looking at boats on the lake," he said. "I zeroed in on them and, with this setup, I think a person could shoot as well as the gun is able to shoot."
When Whitehurst and Bivens went to the rifle range to practice the only hassle the pair ran into - other than people curious about their equipment and a blind guy shooting a high-powered rifle - was low batteries.
A few wires and a couple of 9-volt batteries later, the problem was solved.
Not only has Sherer created a device that allows a blind hunter to shoot, it also records whatever the scope is seeing. There is videotape of Bivens missing a deer, but not of him bagging a 4-point buck.
Whitehurst was holding the video camera and directing Bivens while he hunted.
"Sidney is not very high tech," Sherer said. "I think he got a little excited and forgot to push the record button."
He rigs sight for hunter - blind friend
By BOB HODGE, [email protected]
February 16, 2003
Carl Sherer came by the nickname "McGyver" honestly.
An investigator for the TVA police, Sherer was on a stakeout in Alabama when the batteries for his surveillance camera kept dying. Knowing his investigation would be useless without videotaped evidence, he took some wires and - like the McGyver on TV - rigged up the camera to his car battery.
"Any time your using surveillance equipment the biggest problem is power," Sherer said. "When you have trouble with the equipment, 90 percent of the time its because the batteries go dead."
Because of his ingenuity he kept the cameras rolling, the bad guys were caught, and he had a nickname . . . make that two nicknames.
"Sometimes we call him the High Tech Redneck," Sidney Whitehurst said. "He can go through stuff other people throw away and make something from it."
Whitehurst is the assistant director of the TVA Police and Sherer's longtime friend. When the two decided to take Blake Bivens deer hunting, - Bivens has been blind since he was 14 - it fell to Sherer to figure out how to make it possible.
While he couldn't make a blind man see - with a couple of cameras, some PVC pipe, a rifle with a scope and, of course, a little duct tape - he was able to make a blind man hunt.
"I guess I put about 20 or 25 hours of prep work and thought into it," said Sherer, who retires from TVA March 1. "At first I thought about mounting a camera on the rifle, then I thought about coming up with some sort of virtual reality device, but then I thought about using a camera and the rifle scope."
Sherer has a knack for electronics that has helped him with his job at TVA and with his hobby as a ham radio operator. His time working in communications with the National Guard hasn't hurt either.
Still, none of that really prepared him for how to get Bivens, who works at TVA in the criminal investigation division, into a deer stand with a reasonable chance of being successful.
"But after I got the idea of mounting a camera on a scope it came together pretty quickly," Sherer said.
Using a short piece of PVC he mounted a small surveillance camera in the scope on a Browning .25-06 and wired it to the video camera. He had to serve as his own machinist to fit the parts together and then had to sweat the technical aspects of getting a perfect match between the scope and the miniature camera.
He used camouflaged duct tape to put some padding over the scope/camera.
When he was done, one person could hold the rifle and another person could look into the viewfinder of the video camera and see everything the scope was seeing. Because the camera and scope move as one unit, the crosshairs of the scope appear to be superimposed on the viewfinder.
"When I got it all together I took it out on the porch behind my house and was looking at boats on the lake," he said. "I zeroed in on them and, with this setup, I think a person could shoot as well as the gun is able to shoot."
When Whitehurst and Bivens went to the rifle range to practice the only hassle the pair ran into - other than people curious about their equipment and a blind guy shooting a high-powered rifle - was low batteries.
A few wires and a couple of 9-volt batteries later, the problem was solved.
Not only has Sherer created a device that allows a blind hunter to shoot, it also records whatever the scope is seeing. There is videotape of Bivens missing a deer, but not of him bagging a 4-point buck.
Whitehurst was holding the video camera and directing Bivens while he hunted.
"Sidney is not very high tech," Sherer said. "I think he got a little excited and forgot to push the record button."
